So THAT happened

 Those of you who haven't seen David Mamet's 2000 film "State and Main" might want to dig out and load up the VCR this weekend.  It's about how the arrival of a Hollywood film crew ruins the values of a rural Vermont community.  Except maybe the town was already less than idyllic before outside influences corrupted it, or maybe everyone has a few more skeletons in their closet than their cornpone image suggests.

The announcement yesterday of town administrator Frank Lancaster's less than imminent departure had some residents scratching their heads, especially since at the most recent meeting the town council was involved with laying the groundwork for his review (his rehiring, indeed, the reupping of his six figure salary was a mere formality), but anyone who noticed the weight gain and increasingly slouching body habitus of the man starting two years ago knew something was up.  It's a horrible job, having to pretend to like the people you serve, but he was as good a pretender as Estes had seen in a while.

The Fuhrerfurter may have found a better paying or less stressful gig somewhere else, and lord knows he is eminently qualified to administer, for all the negative and positive connotations swirling around that word, but it seems unlikely his leisurely exit relates to suddenly losing control of the vice grip he held on every department, including those ostensibly above him in the supply chain, or external obstacles placed in the path to his reworking Estes into Little Sicily.  The executive session was part of the board packet last Friday, so it obviously had little to do with the increasingly agitated contractors, because their pretend "we hear you" session wasn't scheduled until the following Tuesday.

And it seems unlikely he was forced out, because he was given until September to turn over the reins to a hand-picked successor.  That's seven months away, practically a lifetime of patient, patronizing, passive-aggressive yellow lights.  (Given how the town begged for help from Greg on his replacement, you can be sure our Frank Jr. is out there somewhere.)  There will be some turmoil, and maybe Frank hopes for more, or maybe this is all a negotiating ploy, but no one is irreplaceable (right, Michael Cohen?), and one enjoyable exercise come September 2 will be to see how fast and how far CDIV can brown nose his way into the new Ad-boy upon arrival.

http://www.eptrail.com/ci_32480159/town-administrator-frank-lancaster-announces-retirement-september